Amory Panthers remain perfect in division

AMORY – Go to Amory’s high school baseball field for the food and the Spring weather, and a good Division 1-4A game is likely to break out.
It was a close call, but the Amory Panthers survived the determined Corinth Warriors on Friday night to claim a 3-1 victory, and remain undefeated in league play.
“Us walking away 6-0 in the division from this game is huge,” Amory coach Chad Williams said. “Corinth came to play today, and we were able to take advantage of some of their mistakes.”
Surviving some of his own mistakes was Amory starting pitcher Tanner Poole (4-2). In a workhorse effort, Poole walked four and hit two, but struck out 13 over his seven inning of work, an effort of more than 100 pitches.
“I felt like I hit my spots pretty good,” Poole said. “I just wanted to finish this game, no matter how many pitches it took.”
The contest began in an offensive manner, with both teams scoring in the first inning. Corinth (7-8, 1-4), plated its run on an Osiris Copeland RBI hit, while Amory (14-3, 6-0) tied the contest at 1-1 on a Hayden Williams RBI single.
The contest settled into a pitching duel between Poole and Corinth sophomore Hack Smith, until the fifth inning. There, Amory plated a run on a Poole sacrifice fly, and added a run in the sixth on a nice bunt by Daniel Simpson.
“Any loss at this point in the season is a major setback,” said Corinth coach Rob Scarbrough, whose Warriors still have five division games left. “The key for us was the strikeouts, and we left 10 on base.”
Corinth did leave the bases loaded in the third and fourth innings, with Poole managing to work out of the situations.
“I was going to pull him once or twice, but he kept telling me he had this,” Williams said. “When a guy as experienced as him says that, you’ve got to stay with him.”